My first harmattan in six years,
Wafts and sails like a canoe
On lonely waters: quiet of ripples,
With zero fishes or mermaids in view.

The cold heat burrows in the nostril,
Digging for ore, flesh, and gold.
Through wire nets and iron bars, austral
Winds shimmy and blow, rudely and bold.

Faraway carpenters nail and hammer,
School children fill the air with shrill laughter.
Rumbling generators spit soot ejaculate;
a Bronze Mannikin in the awning perfects a determined gait.

The power goes off, the power comes on:
Dying and living at intervals.
Pantomime dance of the Nigerian life, drawn
In pastels of incompetence and linseed oils.

I am the good that exists in spots,
I am the darkness that overruns.
When harmattan comes, the earth hardens;
Bloom cedes to gloom and wilting gardens.

Aanuoluwapo Adesina (2024)

Aanuoluwapo Adesina is a Nigerian poet and writer. He currently serves as Founder and Editor of The Olugbon Review— a literary and art magazine created to curate the unheard voices and unseen crafts of young writers and artists without a platform of their own or mainstream exposure. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing MFA program at Butler University, Indiana. His works have appeared in Brittle Paper, ROPES Literary Journal, Kalahari Review, and elsewhere. He enjoys writing, bowling, and taking walks in his leisure.